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Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman for England, takes us on a profound journey through the evolving landscape of social housing complaints and the critical issue of damp and mould that has transformed the sector.

"Home is a really emotional place," Richard explains, capturing the essence of why housing complaints differ from those in other sectors. With an inquiry reaching the Ombudsman approximately every 20 seconds, the scale of housing issues becomes starkly apparent. As an advocate for fairness, the Housing Ombudsman exists to address power imbalances between landlords and residents, particularly in a housing crisis where residents have limited choice and voice.

The conversation delves into how the Ombudsman's spotlight on damp and mould has shifted industry practices. Before the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, the Ombudsman noticed they weren't seeing enough damp and mould complaints relative to other housing quality indicators – suggesting these serious issues weren't being adequately addressed. The subsequent cultural shift has been remarkable, with Richard noting: "One thing I have seen less of is tenant blaming... that suggests there's been a change in behaviors."

Perhaps most revealing is his insight into what good practice looks like – culture, leadership, curiosity, and empathy forming the foundation for effective housing management. The implementation of Awaab's Law this autumn represents a pivotal moment, though Blakeway cautions against treating it as a "bolt-on" rather than integrating it into a comprehensive framework for housing quality.

Looking toward the future, he emphasizes the importance of data and technology in moving from reactive to predictive maintenance models. While complaint volumes continue to rise (35% increase in the last financial year), he hopes to eventually see the uphold rate decline ahead of case volumes – indicating real improvement in local resolution and rebuilding trust.

The Housing Ombudsman

Richard Blakeway LinkedIn

Awaabs Law

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What if the very standards designed to keep us comfortable in buildings are actually making us unhealthy? This provocative question lies at the heart of groundbreaking research from Delft University of Technology.

It challenges the fundamental assumptions that have guided building science for decades. Even when our buildings meet all current standards for temperature, lighting, acoustics, and air quality—and even when occupants report feeling comfortable—the fact remains that spending 90% of our lives indoors may be harming our health.

The problem stems from our reliance on simplistic "single dose-response" models that isolate individual stressors like CO2 or temperature. These models fail on three fronts: they prioritise preventing short-term discomfort over promoting long-term health, they ignore how environmental factors interact with each other, and they're based on an "average person" who doesn't actually exist. The thermal comfort example is particularly striking—our pursuit of thermally neutral environments might be contributing to obesity by never challenging our bodies to regulate their own temperature.

Professor Bluyssen advocates for a shift toward "situation modeling"—a holistic approach that considers the entire context of environment, individual, and activity. Her field studies reveal just how diverse our environmental preferences are, even within shared spaces like classrooms. When a teacher opens a window, it might please some students while making others miserable by letting in traffic noise.

The path forward isn't about finding magic numbers for ventilation rates or perfect temperatures. It's about creating flexible, adaptive spaces that accommodate our diverse needs and give us greater control over our environments. Though this approach is more complex, it represents our best chance at designing indoor spaces that truly support human health and wellbeing rather than merely preventing immediate discomfort.

The need to go beyond the comfort-based dose-related indicators in our
IEQ-guidelines

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Is world of ambient air quality monitoring is in a deadlock. Despite having targets and technology, air pollution remains a persistent urban challenge.

Why aren't things changing? This question drives Maxime Interbrick, co-founder of Sparrow Analytics, whose company is pioneering a revolutionary approach to environmental intelligence by deploying mobile sensors on vehicle fleets.

In this conversation, Maxime reveals how mobile monitoring provides a fundamentally different perspective than traditional static sensors. While government-operated reference stations offer precise measurements at specific points, they miss the dramatic variations in pollution levels from street to street. Sparrow's approach combines mobile sensors mounted on postal vehicles and delivery fleets with AI analysis to create comprehensive pollution maps showing street-level variations in real-time.

The results are surprising – between 60-80% of city areas actually have good air quality. The problem isn't that entire cities are polluted; it's that we lack the granular data to identify the "healthy paths" through our urban environments. This insight transforms how we might approach urban navigation, especially for vulnerable populations like children with asthma or elderly residents. Rather than avoiding cities altogether, we can make informed choices about when and where to travel.

Maxime shares fascinating examples from their deployments, including discovering dangerously high pollution levels behind a school where older children were dropped off – caused by carpet dust in buses – and identifying extreme urban heat islands where temperature variations of 10-15 degrees occur within the same street. These discoveries enable practical, immediate interventions rather than waiting years for infrastructure changes.

What makes this approach particularly powerful is how the data can be integrated into platforms people already use – navigation apps, fitness trackers, health applications, and real estate services. Instead of creating another dashboard nobody checks, Sparrow envisions environmental intelligence becoming as routine as checking the weather. For cities struggling with pollution, this offers a path forward that empowers individuals while informing better urban planning.

Have you checked your neighborhood's air quality today? Perhaps it's time to start. Follow Sparrow Analytics' journey as they expand across Europe and the United States, bringing environmental int

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Have you ever wondered how researchers measure something as subjective as your comfort in a building? The latest episode of Air Quality Matters takes a surprising step back from specific pollutants to examine one of the most fundamental yet overlooked tools in indoor environmental research: the questionnaire.

When scientists ask you to rate how stuffy a room feels or how comfortable the temperature is, they're relying on scales and questions that may be fundamentally flawed. Marcel Schweiker's paper "10 questions concerning the usage of subjective assessment scales" exposes the messy reality behind these seemingly simple measurements. From the "wild west" of inconsistent scales across studies to the profound problems of language translation, we discover why comparing results between different research projects is nearly impossible under current practices.

The episode dives deep into the philosophical core of measurement itself. What are we actually capturing when someone circles a number on a comfort scale? Rather than obtaining clean data, we're glimpsing a complex psychological construct filtered through cultural expectations, sense of control, and even social desirability bias. A person who knows they can open a window will perceive air quality differently than someone who feels trapped in the same conditions. The podcast explores alternative measurement approaches including physiological signals and behavior observation, but concludes that questionnaires remain essential - if properly designed.

For anyone interested in buildings, air quality, or the science of human comfort, this episode offers a fascinating look at how the research community must evolve to better capture our messy, subjective experience of indoor environments. It's a call for more thoughtful, critical approaches to the science that shapes the buildings where we spend 90% of our lives. Listen now to gain a fresh perspective on what it truly means to measure comfort in the built environment.

Ten questions concerning the usage of subjective assessment scales in research on indoor environmental quality

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When we talk about air pollution, we often think of it as an environmental issue – something that affects our skies and lungs. But the reality is far more complex and concerning. What if I told you that the particles you breathe in right now could be traveling through your bloodstream to every organ in your body?

Sir Stephen Holgate, a distinguished physician and leading expert in respiratory medicine, joins us to unpack the multisystemic nature of air pollution. With over 50 years of research experience and a knighthood for his contributions to medical research, he explains how particulate matter doesn't just irritate our lungs – it passes through them into our circulation, delivering harmful chemicals to our brain, heart, liver, and beyond.

"These very small particles get into the bloodstream and they circulate to every organ of the body," he explains. "It accelerates the aging process of those tissues or organs." This understanding has led researchers to now associate approximately 700 different diseases with air pollution exposure.

The conversation takes us from the scientific mechanisms of how pollution damages our bodies to the broader societal implications. We explore the inequalities in exposure, with disadvantaged communities bearing the greatest burden while having the least say in regulations. He makes a compelling case that breathing clean air should be considered a human right, much like access to clean water.

Perhaps most fascinating is the discussion of our body's barrier functions and how modern environments have overwhelmed these natural defenses. Sir Stephen Holgate shares remarkable research comparing traditional farming communities like the Amish, who have virtually no allergies or asthma, with genetically similar populations who adopted modern Western lifestyles. The difference? Their relationship with the natural world and the microorganisms that shape our immune systems.

Whether you're concerned about your health, interested in environmental justice, or simply curious about why asthma rates have skyrocketed in the UK, this conversation offers invaluable insights into how we might create healthier communities by cleaning up the air we all share.

Sir Stephen Holgate

Sir Stephen Holgate - Imperial Alumni Awards

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What's the true financial value of a healthier workplace? This episode of Air Quality Matters dives into research from the University of Cambridge that quantifies exactly how much companies are willing to pay for healthier office environments.

The research reveals a significant "health premium" of 4-6% for buildings certified under health-focused standards like WELL and Fitwell. This represents a tangible financial incentive for property owners to invest in features that enhance indoor air quality, lighting, comfort, and other elements that benefit human health beyond just energy efficiency.

But here's where it gets fascinating: when comparing indoor health factors to outdoor characteristics, neighbourhood walkability emerged as an even stronger driver of rental prices than building certifications. Companies clearly value locations where employees can easily walk to amenities or use public transit. Meanwhile, the counterintuitive finding that higher outdoor air pollution sometimes correlates with higher rents reveals how economic density in city centres often outweighs environmental concerns.

The holistic message is clear: the market increasingly values healthy environments both inside and outside buildings, even when these factors aren't explicitly advertised. For developers and building owners, this means considering the entire health ecosystem, not just isolated features. You simply can't build a healthy building in an unhealthy location and expect to maximise its value.

Whether you're in commercial real estate, workplace design, or just interested in the economics of health and sustainability, this episode offers valuable insights into how the market is beginning to quantify the long-understood but previously unpriced value of healthier spaces for workers.

Indoor and outdoor health factors in the pricing of commercial real estate:
A hedonic analysis of U.S. office buildings

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The journey from visible smog in Beijing to sophisticated indoor air quality monitoring systems spans just a decade, but the transformation has been remarkable. In this eye-opening conversation, Liam Bates, CEO and co-founder of Kaiterra, shares how personal experience with air pollution sparked a mission that evolved from consumer devices to enterprise-level building solutions.

We explore why Kaiterra made the strategic decision to pivot from a successful B2C business selling the popular Laser Egg monitor to focusing entirely on commercial applications. This shift reveals fundamental truths about how building data becomes valuable only when it drives meaningful action—a journey that begins, not ends, when sensors are installed.

The discussion challenges outdated approaches to building performance testing, making a compelling case for continuous monitoring that captures the dynamic nature of occupied spaces. Rather than eliminating the need for specialists, this technology revolution allows experts to focus their skills where they matter most: solving complex problems identified through ongoing data collection.

The most profound insights emerge when Liam frames air quality monitoring not as a luxury or an ROI calculation, but as a fundamental health and safety requirement. Just as we wouldn't question the value of smoke detectors or fire sprinklers, the ability to see and manage the air we breathe represents a basic obligation to protect human health.

Whether you manage commercial properties, design buildings, or simply care about creating healthier indoor environments, this conversation will transform how you think about the invisible elements that impact our wellbeing every day. The future of healthy buildings isn't about collecting more data—it's about using that data to create spaces where people truly thrive.

Liam Bates - LinkedIn

Kaiterra

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What happens when the UK's medical establishment declares air pollution a public health emergency? The Royal College of Physicians' latest report "A Breath of Fresh Air" delivers a wake-up call that transforms how we understand pollution's impact on our bodies and minds.

The science has evolved dramatically since their 2016 assessment. While annual pollution-related deaths in the UK have decreased to approximately 30,000, this statistic merely scratches the surface. The report reveals how air pollution harms us throughout our entire lives—starting before conception by affecting egg and sperm quality, continuing through pregnancy with links to miscarriage and low birth weight, and persisting across the lifespan.

Most alarming is the growing evidence connecting air pollution to brain health. Ultra-fine particles don't just damage our lungs; they cross into our bloodstream and travel to our brains, potentially contributing to everything from learning difficulties in children to depression in adolescents and dementia in older adults. This isn't just an environmental concern—it's a mental health crisis hiding in plain sight.

The report also spotlights a disturbing "triple jeopardy" facing vulnerable communities who experience the highest pollution levels, suffer greater susceptibility to harm due to compounding factors like poor housing, and typically contribute least to creating the problem. As other nations adopt stricter standards aligned with updated WHO guidelines, the UK risks falling behind in addressing this fundamental social justice issue.

Medical professionals are being called to action, urged to incorporate air pollution awareness into patient care just as they once transformed the conversation around smoking. The solutions exist—from clean air zones to better indoor ventilation—but require greater urgency from society and policymakers. Listen now to understand why clean air isn't just an environmental luxury but a medical necessity, and stay tuned for our upcoming interview with the report's author, Sir Stephen Holgate.

A Breath Of Fresh Air Report

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